c:\@Work\Perl\monks\tel2>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le "use constant NEVER_PRESENT => qq{\x01}; ;; my $s = 'Prefix5,Prefix6:A,B:*:1,23 value7=10|value88=123'; ;; $s =~ s{ [*] }{${ \NEVER_PRESENT }}xmsg; ;; my ($keyule, $valule) = split ' ', $s, 2; ;; $keyule =~ s{ : }[}:{]xmsg; $keyule = qq[{$keyule}]; print qq{'$keyule'}; $valule =~ s{ [|] }{,}xmsg; $valule = qq[{$valule}]; print qq{'$valule'}; ;; my %hash; for my $v (glob $valule) { my ($vk, $vv) = split '=', $v; for my $k (glob $keyule) { $k =~ s{ ${ \NEVER_PRESENT } }{*}xmsg; $hash{$k}{$vk} = $vv; } } dd \%hash; " '{Prefix5,Prefix6}:{A,B}:{☺}:{1,23}' '{value7=10,value88=123}' { "Prefix5:A:*:1" => { value7 => 10, value88 => 123 }, "Prefix5:A:*:23" => { value7 => 10, value88 => 123 }, "Prefix5:B:*:1" => { value7 => 10, value88 => 123 }, "Prefix5:B:*:23" => { value7 => 10, value88 => 123 }, "Prefix6:A:*:1" => { value7 => 10, value88 => 123 }, "Prefix6:A:*:23" => { value7 => 10, value88 => 123 }, "Prefix6:B:*:1" => { value7 => 10, value88 => 123 }, "Prefix6:B:*:23" => { value7 => 10, value88 => 123 }, }